Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-07-07
Weighing THE SUN.
11ss Most Surprising Result of the A
vaHcemeAt of tie Sciences

ITss Msst Surprising Result of the AID.
vaHcemeRt of tie Sciences
Lhe' power we have of weighing. q
star'isi without doubt. one of the most
surprising results of tie advancement
of the sciences that cne indeed which.
PERSONS unacquainted with the pin
cipla% of celestial mechanics most hest
tate to'aceept. To weigh star is' q
fact more extraordinary, again, than
to faeas,lEs. the distanyc of one; and
certainly, neither Copernicus, ao-
Galileoa no~ keppler;. nor Newton
coulR have imagined that the day
would ooane when tlIeir successs.s
WOULD be able, by the application of
their immortal discoveries, to deter
| mine tie mass of star moving in the
depths, of celestial space Let us at
tempt to- give an idea Of the method
| employed I'm acquirinewa knowledge
of the magnitude and the masses Of
stars
The mass Of u star is calculated i3y
the ese',gy OF the actions that it thrnws
arountiiit. IF the eartLawere ten tinses
heayieget lnpn it is. still preserving oiie
same Jolurss, it woulG draw bodies
towards its surface ten times more
forcibiy than it now docs. and an OBJ
ject which rp0w falls Il given numbeE,of
feet in, the FIRST second Of time, wsuld
then drop ten times That number. Of
feet IN ttaat second Again, if ta,a'
eartaa. still pres CRYING It's volume had
the mass OF the sun. il would attract
bodies, with an energ,v increased af224
600 times and an o3ject which now
weighs ONE pound would then weigh
324 900. pounds; laan of the mean
weight OF 100 pounds would weigh
81 100000 of them! we measure. the
weight OF q star bys the intensity of
the. attraction to its surface. Reduced
to- its; simple expression, in its appliea-
tom 10, the fall of bodies, this Aol.ae-
tfon woxsld be hard to verify; but we
eaa determine it by the velos:fy Of a
satellite gravitating around d star
whose. mass we wish to know.
Fog example, this attraction, Of the
snrth has the pcMer of curaine the
straight line whic!A would be followed
by the moon in space if this attraction
did not exist, and it bends the line by
its attraction i'm such wsy that the
moon runs roun d the circumference OF
circle in twsnty-seven days seven
hours and forsy-three mfnates. If the
mass or the energy of the earth should
increase. the Telocity of che moon in
its orbit would also be angmented; if
the mass sh0mld be diminished, the con-
trary effect on the moons orbit would
be produced Attracti0a varies in the
direct ratio of the masses The We
locity of the moon around the earth
comes from tho Same force rs the earth
The earth is the hanst which causes
the moon to turn in the sling. If the
earth had more force, more energy
than II really has. it would cause the
moon to turn more swiftly, and vice
versa, If the sun should increase in
weight the earth and other planets
would turn more rapidly around it.
and years would decrease in length.
If the mass of the sun shoald decrease,
the contrary results wonkl take place.
By comparing the action Of the earth
OH the moon, we have found that tho
sun is $4,000 times moro powerful,
more heavy than tho earth. Prof
Pau 4. ToUne.